Exalt Yhwh our Holy God - Psalm 99

 I'm up to Psalm 99 in my meander through Book IV of the Psalter (90-106), and it's a shorter one, only nine verses, but nonetheless some really interesting features.

Holy Holy Holy

There is a repeated refrain, which seems to conclude each of the three stanzas: Holy is he! Following that gives us 1-3, 4-5, 6-9, and then another feature sticks out, namely the description of Yhwh at the beginning of the first two stanzas, v1 begins "Yhwh reigns," while v4 starts with "and a mighty king," both the noun "king" and the verb "to reign" are from the root מלך mlk.

The third stanza begins describing not Yhwh but three of the most important figures of the exodus and pre-monarchy period: Moses, Aaron and Samuel. Interestingly, David is not mentioned, which could well be because he as king is certainly not the focus of this psalm; Yhwh is king, and Samuel is not important because he anointed the first two kings of Israel, but because he called on Yhwh, and Yhwh answered him.

You could then summarise the three stanzas as:

1-3 Yhwh reigns over the earth

4-5 Yhwh is the king who establishes justice

6-9 Yhwh answers the pleas of his servants

Apart from concluding with a "holy" phrase, the final verse of each stanza is a tricolon, whreas the other verses are all bicola.

Speech

One interesting factor in this psalm is where Yhwh is addressed. In three places and 5 times total Yhwh is addressed by the psalmist:

3a They praise your name; 

4c You established uprightness,

4d justice and righteousness have you worked in Jacob. 

8b You answered them

8c A God who carries away [sin] were you for them.

Each of these are roughly in the middle of a stanza, which gives further shape to the structure mentioned above. The first two also bookend reported speech, which comes in 3b-4b, bridging the first two stanzas:

“Great and awesome;

Holy is he!”

And, “Mighty king

he loves justice!”

Call and Response

If we were to divide the poem into two roughly even halves, 1-5, 6-9, with the speech at the centre, the psalm takes on a different shape and a different emphasis. The first half focusses on the peoples praising Yhwh who establishes uprightness, justice and righteousness. The second moves its attention to the three aforementioned figures, and the remarkable thing it is for Yhwh to answer them and to respond to their pleas to deal with sin. Both halves then conclude with a near-identical refrain:

Exalt Yhwh our God (5a/9a)

and bow down before his footstool (5b) / holy hill (9b)

Holy is he (5c) / Holy is Yhwh our God (9c)

Both halves also contain the 2nd person address in the centre, so that the stanzas run:

Statement about Yhwh and his people (1/6)

Location of Yhwh (Zion v2/pillar of cloud v7)

2nd person address (3-4/8)

Exalt our holy God Yhwh in a location (footstool v5/holy hill v9)

To me this structure seems more satisfactory, and explains the movements in the text.

Psalm 99 and the exodus

This psalm is clearly written after the exodus; the references to Zion (v2) and Samuel (v6) show that it is from a later time. And yet, the absence of any reference to David (except perhaps by allusion through "Zion") suggests that the author was not interested in going back to the time of the monarchy. More important are images which remind them of the exodus journey, with the cherubim (v1; cf Ex 25:18) and the pillar of cloud (v7; cf Ex 13:21; 19:9), not to mention the decrees and statues which are linked to the exodus (v7; cf Dt 4:45).

One odd lexeme is עלילה 'alylah (99:8d) which occurs fairly rarely in the Bible (24x), and here is usually translated "misdeeds." It's a little confusing; in Psalm 103 and 105 it's the deeds or decrees of Yhwh, whereas in Deuteronomy 22 it means slander. Although it's not described with the same vocabulary, I wonder if the times Moses and Aaron sin could be described as slander? And if it's their sin which was carried away? The alternative is that v8 is speaking more generally of Israel's sin, dealt with by the priests.

In any case, this psalm looks back to a time when Yhwh was honoured as king, when he spoke and the people responded in praise—the optimists' memory of the exodus!

Psalm 99 as Christian Scripture

By harking back to time when Yhwh was acknowledged as king, this implies a time when Yhwh was not acknowledged as such. What greater (worse?) time could there be for that than when Jesus was ignored as king. He was neither praised nor exalted above all peoples (v2-3), even though he spoke clearly to his people (v6-7). Despite this, he was the one who carried away our sin, dealing with our slander (v8). Our praise then is directed not to the temple, but to the holy hill (v9) on which he died, worshipping at the cross the one who, though being holy, died for sin.

Singing the new song - Psalm 98

 Psalm 98 is a bit loud:

• v1 sing
• v4 make noise, break forth, exult, praise
• v5 make music
• v6 make noise
• v7 roar
• v8 clap hands, exult

Why the racket? In v1-3 the psalmist looks back for reasons:

• Yhwh has done wonders
• Yhwh has wrought salvation
• Yhwh has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness

Three times Yhwh's salvation is mentioned:

1. In v1 it is seen in his right hand and his holy arm.
2. In v2 he has made his salvation known before the nations.
3. In v3 the ends of the earth have seen his salvation.

And it is his faithfulness in the past that means those who sing this psalm can look forward in the final verse:

• he is coming to judge the earth
• he will judge the cosmos with righteousness
• and he will judge peoples with uprightness.

The beginning and the end of the psalm then speak of his acts of salvation, some past, some yet to come. And the praise in the centre of the psalm looks backward and forwards in light of this. The noise from the peoples (singing and playing instruments) in v4-6 seems to be looking back to what has gone before, while the noise from creation in v7-8 (the sea and cosmos roaring, rivers clapping, mountains exulting) looks forward to the salvation which is to come.

1-3 Past salvation

4-6 The people rejoice and give thanks

7-8 All creation makes noise looking forward

9 Salvation to come

Of course, this unravels a riddle from v1 which didn't become apparent until we hit the end.

Sing a new song because he has done wonders.

What is confusing is the new song refers to past events, things which have already happened and already been revealed. But at the end we see that the new song begins with the old story, in order to look to the future with confidence.

Psalm 98 as an exodus psalm

For those who came in late, part of my project in going through Psalms 90-106 is to think through them as potentially telling the story of the exodus. And in this psalm v1 in particular shouts out to me as an exodus psalm. The נפלאות (wonders) sung of here consistently speak of the wonders done in rescuing Israel from Egypt (cf Exodus 3:20; 34:10; Micah 7:15). Similarly, the mention of "his right hand, his holy arm" is a clear call-back to the language of Exodus 6-7 (6:1,1,6,8;7:4,5) as Yhwh promises Moses that his mighty hand will bring them salvation.

Psalms 98 recalls Yhwh's salvation out of Egypt, and looks forward (as does Micah, above) to his future acts salvation along similar lines.

Psalm 98 as Christian Scripture

The creation language of this psalm directs me to the language in Romans 8 as Paul writes of the groaning of creation; here the creation has a certainty which causes it to pre-emptively sing and rejoice.

Psalm 98 proclaims Yhwh as the king (v6); this side of the cross we know Jesus as the king who gave his life to bring salvation, and we look back to that event for our hope in the future and in living now, trusting that God continues to remember his steadfast love and faithfulness (v2) for all who call on his name, for all who know his salvation, even tot he ends of the earth (v3).